Forever My Butterfly
Unknown to them a dark shadow was watching them, looking through the window. All had gone well, the husband was gone, leaving the wife and child alone. Suddenly the mother heard the thud of the front door unlock.
She paused the TV, and called out "Who's there? Dan is that you?" The only reply she got was the wind entering the house. Then the door locked again and whoever had opened it was in the house.
"Mommy what's wrong?" the small boy asked.
"I don't know baby. Stay here" She replied. She stood up and grabbed a golf club that was on the floor. From behind she heard a scream and started to turn to help her boy when she was grabbed from behind.
…
"You sure you're all right?" Grissom asked.
"Yes Gil, I'm fine" Sara replied rolling her eyes. He had been over protective of her since she was trapped under that car, At first she did not mind but now it was getting annoying. This was her first case since she had been taken and put under the car in some random part of the dessert that surrounded them.
"Hey Sara, nice to see you back on the field." Jim Brass said as they walked up.
"Thanks Jim, but what happened here?" She questioned.
"Two people were in the house, mother and son. From the blood, at least one is dead; no body's though. The neighbors called it said they heard screams coming from the house, one came over to see what was happening. All he saw was a lot of blood; he ran back to his house and called the police. Unfortunately by the time they got here it was to late and nobody was in the house, well except the blood.
They entered the house and realized what he meant, there was blood everywhere. There was so much that they could not even see what was on the TV.
"How much do you think there is?" Grissom asked Sara.
"More then four pints, if this all belongs to one victim then that person is dead." She answered.
"Are Nick, Catherine, Greg, and Warrick coming?" Jim asked Grissom.
"Ya they got caught in some traffic on the way, they should be here soon" right as he finished talking they pulled up.
As they got out of the car Jim told them what he had just told Sara and Grissom.
"OK, Nick, Greg and I got the perimeter" Catherine said when they walked up. Then they started to walk around the house.
"Hey Jim, who lives here?" Grissom asked.
"The neighbors said that a Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson with their son David." He replied.
"Then we're looking for three body's" Warrick stated.
"No, only two," Jim corrected then continued "Mr. Sanderson is in LA for a business meeting. He's coming back tomorrow, imagine the surprise, you come home from a meeting on Christmas day expecting your family to be at the airport all happy, instead he got some police to tell him their dead. Worst present ever."
"Come on you two, we have to start, this might take a while" Grissom started while stepping towards the door.
When they got inside Warrick took a few photos of the entire scene. "Damn, that's a lot of blood. I'm going to take a few samples from different areas incase its more then one persons." He pulled out some swabs and started to walk across the room without stepping in any of the blood. "Hey, I found a golf club, it's covered in blood, possible murder weapon."
While he worked on that Sara was following a blood trail. It led her out of the living room and down the hall as she went she marked the footprints in the blood. All of a sudden, the trail stopped. She noticed that the amount of blood where it stopped was more then everywhere else. "Hey Gil, come look at this. The person that was bleeding stood here more then anywhere else, and it doesn't look like that person went anywhere else" as she said that a single drop of blood fell from above them. They looked up and saw a pair of bloody feet.
"I think we found body number one," Grissom said as Sara walked up the stairs.
"No, it's a dummy, and it's nailed to the banister. How we going to get it down?" She asked.
"We'll figure it out after I get some shots of it" he replied, and started to get his camera out. When he was done and Sara had taken some close ups, he handed up a hammer and she slowly started to pull out the nails. After pulling them all out Grissom helped her pull it over the banister.
"Thanks," she said and tried gave him a genuine Sara smile but it couldn't come out. "Hey look at this," she said looking through the pockets, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it. It said-
You will never find us
We will keep killing
After reading she turned it over. On the back was a symbol, a straight edge heart with two circles, one inside the other, and a X going through the circles.
"What is this, gang related?" a voice from behind them asked, making them both jump. They turned around to see Warrick behind them. "Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you. Here I already have a bag out." He told Sara as she started to get another one out for the paper.
"You find anything else?" Grissom asked him.
"Ya, I found some hairs. Lots of prints, but by the look most are glove prints, only a few have a distinctive pattern. I also checked what was on the TV, it was paused on the part were they wouldn't let him play the raindear games" he told them.
"They were watching Rudolph, makes sense, I mean its Christmas Eve. A lot of families do that, watch a certain movie or read a special book on this night" Sara put in.
Later when they all met outside Nick told them what they had found. "No forced entrance any were, whoever did this used the door, we got the back doors knob to check for scratches of a pick, Greg here is just about to get the front door," he said.
"I am? All right I'll get it" he walked to the door and brought back the knob in a bag.
"Come on we got to get the evidence back to the lab" Grissom said as he started to walk to the cars.
…
Back at the lab Greg and Sara were giving the evidence to Hodges. "Why did you get the door knobs?" he asked.
"Do you know what happens to the lock when it is picked?" Sara asked him.
"Well a picked lock gets scratched from the pick. So?" he answered confused.
"There was no forced entrance any were in the house, so if its not scratched" Greg started.
"The killer has a key. OK I'll check" Hodges finished and started to process the stuff they had given him.
"Sara, Greg, come on we're going to see what's in that dummy" Warrick said coming up behind them. They headed towards the morgue; everyone else was already there.
"OK Doc. cut her up" Grissom told Dr. Robbins. He picked up a scaffold and cut into its side, he felt inside.
"Umm, what's this," he said to himself. He continued the cut up the arm and as he pulled the cut apart a real arm fell out. "O my, looks like we found one of the bodies." He finished pulling the dummy of the women.
"I guess this is the mother," Catherine stated. "I'll stay hear with Nick, and Greg."
"Come on Sara, Warrick, let's go back to the house," Grissom told them.
"Gil, come here" Ecklie called him over from his office as they were about to leave. "I here you are working on a murder/kidnap case."
"Yes" Grissom replied.
"Was a body found in a dummy?"
"Yes, what's your point?"
"Gil, it's a serial he struck before about two months ago then two months before that."
…
Back at the house they followed they bloody footprints.
"Hey, check this out, I didn't notice this before" Sara told them pointing to a continuation of the footprints that they didn't see until she pointed them out.
"It looks like they wiped the soles of their shoes clean" Grissom commented as they started to follow them. "These prints must have been made from blood dripping from the shoe patterns." The prints lead them out the door were they continued in the dirt. However in the dirt they looked like shapeless blobs.
"They probrely took the same exact path going to and from, stepping in the same footprints" Warrick said. They walked and walked eventually they followed them into the dessert. After about a hour of walking the footprints lead them to a bunker.
"Hey, isn't this the bunker that the cult used a few years back?" Sara wondered.
"It is" Grissom replied. On the door was the same symbol that was on the back of the note. "I think we found their hang out, don't you"
"Ya, lets go in" Warrick said and headed towards the door with his gun drawn. Grissom motioned for Sara to go next. Then he followed her after quickly checking to see if he had service on his phone. He cursed to himself when he didn't. They slowly walked down the stares until the came to the room that once held eleven bodies. Warrick opened the door and looked inside. After a couple seconds he took everything he saw in then walked in the room. The other two followed him and gasped at what the saw Three young boys, each around the age of seven or eight were in the room cowering behind a bed in the corner. Warrick was already walking over to them. He was about to say something when they heard voices from the stairs. They rushed behind a bed against the back wall.
"Hello boys" a gruff voice said from the door. The oldest looking boy stood up from behind the bed and walked towards the source of the voice. After a minute he walked back with a brown paper bag. He emptied it and gave most of the food that was inside to the other two boys saving only a little for himself. When the boys had started to eat the door closed and they heard five sets of footsteps climbing the stares
"Hi" Warrick started being nearer to them then his collogues "I'm Warrick Brown and these are my friends, Gil Grissom" he said pointing to Grissom then to Sara in the corner "and Sara Sidle. Is one of you David Sanderson?"
"Y-yes, m-m-me" the youngest one stammered looking up from his food.
"I'm going to call the lab and get back up" Sara told them quietly as she pulled out her cell. "Damn, no signal, now what are we going to do?" she said looking desperately at the other two.
"I don't know" Grissom said.
"We can leave to get back up" Warrick suggested.
"Y-you can't" one of the boys spoke up.
"Why not?" Grissom asked him.
"One of then always keeps guard the first day, then before he leaves they all search the room, so um there is no way out." The boy replied followed by 'oh crap' looks from the three CSI's.
During the wait for them to get found Warrick talked to the three boys and discovered that they all had been brought here after seeing there mothers killed right in front of them. While he talked to them Sara slept with her back to the corner while Grissom just sat there watching her. He couldn't stand it, he had just gotten her back and now he might lose her for good. He wouldn't let it happen.
Hours later they were back behind the bed with their guns drawn when the heard the door slam open.
…
At that time at the airport Brass waited for a flight to land with Catherine and a police officer, holding a white board that said 'Mr. Sanderson, welcome home'. After half an hour they saw a tall brown haired man wearing a Vikings hat, jeans, and a white tee shirt. He also had a cast around his left arm that was suspended by a sling. He walked towards them, after he saw the officer his eyes became a pool of worry.
"Mr. Sanderson?" Brass asked him when he stopped in front of them.
"Yes, what happened. Is Sue or Davie hurt?" he asked them fearing the worst.
"I'm sorry Mr. Sanderson, but your wife is dead and you son is missing" Catherine explained coming up next to Brass.
"Who are you? You're not a cop" he asked her.
"I'm Catherine Willows, I'm investigating your wife's death" she replied.
"You need to come back to the lab to identify the body and answer some questions" Brass told him and started to walk out.
…
Back at the lab Mr. Sanderson had identified the body and was being questioned.
"Why were you out of town?" Brass asked him.
"I had business in LA I couldn't miss it because I was trying to get promoted" he replied.
"That's odd cause we asked your boss and he said that he would never have a meeting away from home around Christmas. So what were you doing in LA?"
"Alright I needed some time alone."
"How did you break your arm then?"
"I fell down the hotel stairs, ok"
"OK then how do you explain why you purchased two two way tickets, and both were used. You did it didn't you. You see we found some blood at the crime scene, actually we found a lot of blood, but there were three different people that bled. We matched up your wife's and from her your sons then from his yours. We all know you did it." Brass explained while showing him some pictures of the crime scene.
"Fine, I did it I killed them" he yelled.
"Why? You had no reason" Brass questioned.
"Why? Why? She found out that I kill those other women and said she was going to call the police on me."
"Why didn't she?"
"I cut the phone line and the electric company said they couldn't fix it till after the holiday. Then I left for LA came back the next day killed her returned after it was done and came back this morning."
"Then why did you kill the other women?"
"I don't know. I just wanted to I guess." He finished with a cocky grin on his face and it was obvious he wasn't going to answer anything else.
"Take him away" Bras said and the officers came up and cuffed Sanderson. "Hey, Cath, you know were Gil is?" he asked her when he left the interrogation room.
"He went back to the house with Sara and Warrick to see if they missed any evidence. Why?" she replied.
"Just wondering cause I haven't seen any of them since the autopsy of the dummy. How long have they been gone?"
"I don't know, I didn't pay attention. Actually, now that you've mentioned it, they've been gone all day" she said checking her watch.
"Why am I getting a feeling something is wrong" Brass muttered as he pulled out his phone and called Grissoms. "He's not answering, you think something's wrong?"
"I don't know, come on lets go to the house and see if their there, I'll go get Nick and Greg."
…
At the house they also found the footprints and noticed that when they got outside three more sets joined them. They knew that they had been here and followed the prints.
…
When the door slammed open Grissom, Sara, and Warrick jumped up to their knees and rested their guns on the bed ready to shot. They were met by five muscular thugs and one thought ran through each of their minds when the men pulled out their own guns to match their own 'oh crap'.
"Drop the guns, and we wont shoot you" the biggest started. Then continued when he saw his mens faces. "Yet."
Knowing it was helpless Warrick and Sara dropped their guns at once while Grissom just stared at the men for a few seconds before dropping his.
"Look we got some cop's" one of them said excited then looked closer at their vests. "No, some CSI's."
From the stairs they heard a whistle and jumped. A second after the whistle rang through the bunker the men walked closer to them. The first two grabbed Warrick; he struggled for a second until one of them pushed his gun into Warricks back. Before the next two could grab Grissom he moved to shield Sara from them. However they easily got him to move when they threatened to shoot her. After the final one got Sara one pulled out some rope ant they tied each of them up. They forced the CSI's up the stairs and only stopped when they met up with the sixth man.
"What is it?" One of the men asked him.
"Cars are driving towards us from the distance" he answered.
"So, cars have driving by before" the man that was forcing Sara to move stated. "Why is this time different."
"This time is different, it's a lot of police cars, and some Tahoe's." When he said it their captives' faces lighted up, however it did not go unnoticed.
"You think that it's your friends coming to save you. Well the only part you got right is its your friends, but they are NOT going to save you" one of the men that had a hold on Warrick told them with a small grin on his face.
After that they forced them outside and with three thugs holding them from behind the other three stood in front of them. They were immediately plunged into darkness. They were sandwiched between them with no chance of escape. They could only hear what was happening. The cars screeched to a stop and the doors opened, five of them a few seconds after the others.
"What do you want?" the man in front of Grissom asked the police.
"That depends" they heard Brasses voice question back. "What's behind your backs?" and when he asked it the three thugs in front moved to the side and the three CSI's behind them blinked as their eyes adjusted to the light that the thugs had prevented them from getting because they toward over even Warrick.
"It's simple" one of the thugs started. "You shoot us, you shoot you friends. And I know you really don't want to do that"
"What do you want?" Brass asked.
"Nothing" the lead thug answered.
They could see that Catherine, Nick, Brass, and Greg were each debating with themselves about what to do. However before anyone could do anything a shoot was heard from behind Warrick, they were being shoot at, but they couldn't risk shooting back because if they did they would most likely hit one of the three and they couldn't risk that. After thirty seconds the shots ended and they looked out from behind the cars they were shielding behind.
"Now I want all of you to throw your phones, talkies, any communication devises in a pile so you cant call for help, now" the leader yelled at the police. He then continued when none of them moved "If you don't we will shoot her" and they saw him hold his gun against Sara's throat. They also saw how Grissoms eyes flashed with fury and how he was fighting with himself that the only way to save her was to stay still. Slowly small piles formed were the police threw their phones.
When they finished the guy that was holding his gun to Sara threw her to the ground and shot the ground next to her head. "If any more police show up it won't be next to her head, it will be her head" the man told them. They could see Sara fighting back tears and Grissom starting to fight a little before he had a gun pressed to his back. With Sara on the ground one of the thugs was unguarded and after he shot the ground he fell back with blood gushing out from his shoulder where a bullet hole was exposed.
As soon as he fell the other thugs threw Warrick and Grissom to the ground next to Sara. They pulled out their guns and started to shoot. The three CSI's lay on the ground forgotten until the first thug that had been shot got up and grabbed his gun. He crawled over one of his dead friends and grabbed Sara. He dragged her out of the shooting range and held his gun to her again. Few noticed this, but the ones that did, including the rest of the CSIs and Brass, stopped shooting. However instead of shooting her he threw her back in the line of fire. As soon as she was back in the range she fell back. Just seconds later the fire ceased entirely. Most of the thugs were on the ground bleeding and the one that wasn't, the one that had thrown Sara, was being wrestled to the ground by five police.
"Sara!" Grissom yelled running towards her, closely followed by Warrick, both had managed to loosen each other's bonds, and after they got there the rest of the team joined them. She was bleeding in more then one wound and was out cold. While they sat there the police behind them were franticly looking for a phone with a signal.
"I got one" on of them yelled after a minute and he dialed 9-1-1.
As they waited for the ambulance Grissom stroked her hair while some cops looked at her wounds. When the ambulance came the paramedics carefully lifted her onto a stretcher then into the back of the ambulance. When she was inside Grissom jumped in after her.
At the hospital he was sitting in the waiting room as she was in surgery when the rest of the team showed up.
"How is she?" Catherine asked him sitting in the chair next to him. He replied but it was hardly a whisper. "What?"
"She's still in surgery, the doctors said she might not..might not" he cut of not being able to say the rest.
As he sat there tears flowed from his eyes. As the tears fell the team looked at him a little amazed. None of them had ever seen him cry, except a couple tears of joy that had fallen when they had found Sara. But this was nothing they had seen before from him. As they watched the tears fall from his face it finally hit them just how much he cared for Sara. They had suspected something small between them before, and only started to understand their attitude changes when Natalie had taken her. And only a little more when they had found her. But now they truly understand that she had brought the true Gil Grissom out of his hard, cold, shell.
They sat there for hours trying in vain to comfort him until it was almost noon and a doctor came out and told them that she was out of surgery but out cold and not responsive. He said that they could see her.
In her room they just sat there in silence while Grissom held her hand, moving his thumb in circles on the back of her hand.
After sitting there for an hour the rest of the team left one by one until only Catherine remained with him.
"She will get through this Gil, she's a fighter" Catherine told him trying to cheer him up.
"Thanks Cath" he replied wiping the tears from his eyes.
…
The next day Brass and Catherine went to see Sara again to Grissom still there, asleep on the chair he had been in the previous day. Brass was about to go up and wake him up when Catherine stopped him.
"Let him sleep, god knows he needs it."
They stayed there until he woke. When he did they sent him home to shower, change and get some food. He protested at first then left when they told him it would do Sara no good for him to starve himself because her, and that they would wait till he got back to leave.
…
After a month of this Sara still hadn't woken. The doctors said she was in a coma, and it was unlikely she would wake up. Grissom couldn't stay with her the entire day but he visited her daily and on most days got his sleep there because their house had to many memories. The main reason he went home at night was to change, shower and feed the dog.
One day when the team went to see her they found Grissom already there and talking to her
"I'm sorry Sara, this is all my fault" they heard him whisper. They looked inside the room and he was in his chair holding her hand. "My life is nothing without you honey, please don't die. Stay with me a little longer."
He squeezed her hand trying to get any response from her. A few seconds later he felt her squeezing his hand back. Outside they saw something fill his face that they hadn't seen in over month. His face lit up in joy. They rushed in the room and asked him what happened.
"She squeezed my hand" he started then continued when he saw the looks of half disbelief "here" and grabbed the hand of the person closest to him, Greg's, and put it in Sara's hand.
"Sara can you please squeeze your hand again" he asked her quietly. After a second Greg's face lit up as well.
"He's right" he whispered.
"Nick, go get a doctor" Grissom told him as he was the closest to the door. After Nick left all but Grissom left after him.
After they left the doctor came in and preformed some testes on her. When he was finished he informed her that she was starting to respond and her brain was working better. The doctor said she was lucky, mainly that at the moment she had been thrown back into the line only a few people were shooting and that none had hit a major artery.
…
Another month later she could sit up on her own, and wasn't hooked to any extra machines.
"Hey, honey, how are you?" Grissom asked her as he came inside her room.
"I'm good" she replied. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"The doctors said that I can go home tomorrow." She told him, no hint of a smile tugged on the corner of her lips. She hadn't really smiled since she had woken up. Wait, make that since they had found her under that car, but then you could tell that she could. You had lucky to see it attempting to get out, and normally only Grissom saw it. Now no attempt was ever made, nothing could get it out, even Grissom.
"That's great. You know when you first came here I was scared that I was going to lose you, and when you woke up my heart exploded with joy. I had just found you and I thought I was going to lose you again, this time I would never find you. I was scared Sara, really scared" he told her pulling a strand of hair away from her face.
"Gil, I'm fine" she assured him.
"I know but I really was scared Sara" he started. Then continued after looking at the clock. "I have to go, shift starts soon. I'll tell everyone that you are leaving tomorrow. Ok honey?"
"Ya, its ok, you should tell them, besides imagine how mad Catherine would be if we didn't, I'm surprised she didn't get mad when she found out about us" she managed to get a smile from him when she said that. "You should go now, like you said, shift starts soon, besides now you have good news for them."
"I'll come back after shift, I promise" and he softly kissed her forehead before he left.
…
"Ok, Cath, Nick, Warrick, you got a DB in the Palms. Greg, your with me in a armed robbery gone bad" Grissom said handing out the assignments in the break room. "And before you go I have some news. Sara is leaving the hospital tomorrow."
"That's great, hey how bout we have a small party when she gets out" Nick suggested.
"We can have it at our house, I'll call you when I get her" Grissom explained.
…
After shift was over Grissom drove over to the hospital. After about half an hour of instructions and a bunch of other stuff they left. After they got to the house he carried her up the stairs to the couch, her home for at least the next three weeks, until she would go back to the hospital to see if she could use crutches then walk without support.
As she sat on the couch flipping through TV channels he called everyone that they were home. When he was done with that he walked to the bedroom and grabbed a small box from his nightstand and put it in his pocket.
After a couple of minutes everyone showed up. Catherine came first with some sodas and chips followed by Nick who brought more chips, and some dip. Then Warrick and Greg showed up at the same time, one with veggies and dip, and the other with a pasta salad. Jim was the last to show with a small cake. As every one showed up Sara just grew even more surprised.
They talked about cold and old cases, and a bunch of random stuff. While they talked they ate. So soon the food was gone and they were eating Jims cake. Right before they finished Grissom stood up. He walked over to Sara and before anyone knew it he was on one knee.
"Sara, I love you and I don't want to live without you any longer. I'm sorry, I should have done this earlier but. Will you marry me?" As he said it her face split into the grin they had all missed only better, and she leaned forward and kissed him. This surprised the team because they all had a hard time picturing them as a couple and never expected to see either of them kiss anyone.
"Of course I will" she replied with tears of joy rolling down her cheek as he slid the ring on her finger. He stood back with relief on his face. As he stood back Catherine came up to congratulate her while the guys congratulated Grissom.
After everybody left Sara sat on the couch looking at the ring on her finger. The band was gold with small intricate designs in white and pink gold. In the bracket was a sapphire, It was carved into the shape of a butterfly, he had remembered that it was her birthstone.
"Gil, it's beautiful" she whispered when he came and sat next to her.
"Well, it had to be, I was picking out for a beautiful woman. Here look" and he slid it of her finger and tilted it so she could see inside the band. In it was a beautiful etching that read.
Sara, forever be my butterfly
When she read it fresh tears came to her eyes.
"When did you get it?" she asked him when he put it back on her.
"Right before Natalie took you. I'm sorry it took so long"
"Your worth waiting for" She told him before drifting of into sleep with her head resting on his shoulder.